A Bunch Of New Evidence In The Sony Hack Is Pointing Away From North Korea

New evidence emerging in the Sony Pictures cyberattack suggests
that the hackers may have been far closer to home than North
Korea.

News broke Sunday that a security firm working with the FBI
has come up with a list of six people who may have been closely
involved with the hack. One of the individuals investigated by
the firm also happens to be a disgruntled former Sony employee.

The security company Norse used HR documents leaked as part of
the hack to narrow down a list of people who may have been
involved. It seems the company was looking for a list of people
who were fired from Sony between April and May 2014.

Security Ledger reports that Norse investigated a Sony
employee known only as "Lena," viewing messages that she posted
on social media and group chats. She worked at Sony for over a
decade, performing an IT role with a "very technical background."

The messages posted online by Lena suggest that she was angry
with Sony Pictures, as she complained about layoffs and the
company, chatting online with hackers and "hacktivist"
campaigners with knowledge of hacking.

Even more evidence suggests that an insider may have used a
USB stick or hard drive to steal data from Sony's servers and
that the messages posted by the Guardians of Peace hacker group
originate from Russia, not North Korea.

A former federal prosecutor has also cast doubt on the FBI's
assertion that North Korea was involved with the Sony hack.
Mark Rasch of Rasch Technology and Cyberlaw says the claim that
North Korea was behind the hack is "doubtful" and that the
attack seemed to be carried out by someone with close knowledge
of how Hollywood works, leaking only data that was embarrassing
to Sony executives.